A new ice cream business is opening in North Oak Cliff that will give the Bishop Arts District yet another completely unique experience. Called Ice Cream Wasted, it will open at 509 W. Davis St., down the block from Bolsa, where it will take a restaurant-like approach to the ice cream experience, offering sit-down tastings by reservation only.
Owner Bri Calloway is a former chemist who launched the business in 2016. She's been operating out of a shared kitchen in Plano, which she'll depart once she opens her permanent digs in Dallas in July.
"I had this idea back in college," she says. "I was bored as a chemist and decided to start experimenting in my spare time with one of those Cuisinarts where you freeze the bowl in your refrigerator. I did the R&D thing, exploring all of the components of sugar, salt, and water, and I learned how to freeze alcohol."
Creating the flavors was easy, she says. "I have aunts and uncles in the restaurant industry, and I've been cooking since I was 8."
She didn't want to do a scoop shop — "there's a million of those, you can go to Baskin Robbins for that," she says. "I've always been an artist, and I wanted do something that incorporated that along with my chemistry and restaurant background."
One of her creations, called the Golden Cone, has white chocolate cream layered with honey roasted hazelnuts and Guiness stout chocolate sauce wrapped in edible 24-karat gold.
Another called Three-Course Bubble Gum has purple majesty potato ice cream swirled with brown-butter marshmallow sweet tomato fluff topped with rainbow rice crisps and açaí blueberry preservatives drizzled with candied brown sugar bacon bubble gum syrup.
She does themed presentations with a four-course menu, like a chef's tasting. They run 90 minutes long, and cost $45. One recent one was circus-themed, and included candied kettle corn ice cream with caramel popcorn and brown butter, which she served in a popcorn box.
You make a reservation on her website — she's already sold out until mid-July.
"I like the fact that it's not a scoop shop, because I get people to try stuff they might not otherwise try," she says. "Also at my events, you're sitting down with up to 20 other people you might not have met otherwise, so you're having the experience and getting to know each other."
To grab people's attention at events, such as her grand opening on July 16, she serves ice cream spiked with alcohol.
"It's only at those events that I’m able to do the 80-proof stuff," she says. "If it's free, the TABC isn't looking at me."
"But my real focus is on creative flavors, and I concentrate on being egg- and dairy-free," she says, although her toppings are not all vegan. "There've been so many recalls these days, and so many people are lactose-intolerant and vegan. We use coconut milk, and it's a whole lot creamier."
